


The Galaxy Far and Wide

by The_Exile



Category: Star Ocean: The Second Story | Second Evolution
Genre: Alcohol, Banter, Gen, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-09
Updated: 2018-06-09
Packaged: 2019-05-20 06:37:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14889515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Exile/pseuds/The_Exile
Summary: Claude and Opera discuss their shared experiences as stranded space travellers on unfamiliar, underdeveloped planets, as well as the demands of family and society and the weird experiences they've had up to now.





	The Galaxy Far and Wide

**Author's Note:**

  * For [NightsMistress](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightsMistress/gifts).



It had taken Claude quite a while to pluck up the courage to order alcoholic beverages on an alien planet. 

Back when he had first turned eighteen (not that he wanted to be reminded of those simpler times that he didn't know if he would ever be able to go back to - had they really been such a short time ago?) his father took him drinking at one of the local bars. It was one of the few times he was actually home for his son's birthday. The old man had told him that he had managed to wrangle something because it was such a momentous event in a young man's life but, upon reflection, it had been a time of relative peace in the Federation and the Admiral probably just didn't have all that much to do that was considered urgent. He had made it his priority to teach the boy how to drink responsibility.

"Just don't do anything your mother's told you I got up to at your age," Those were his first words, "I know darn well you've already been sneaking in a few beers here and there at the space ports and around the base. Don't give me that innocent look, who do you think it is who pulls strings to make sure you can get away with it and someone's still looking after you?"

Claude had blushed, kept his head down, pretended to stare at his drink. This wasn't a fact he wanted admitted in front of the entire bar - seeing as it was a fairly high class bar close to the base, frequented mostly by the other senior officers and their families, there was probably someone else's kid listening in who now had ammunition to tease him mercilessly about what they had overheard. Besides, he could tell by the flush of his father's cheeks that he was one step away from becoming uninhibited enough to start loudly reminiscing about his adventures. Which, to be fair, were exciting, and had they been at home, he would have welcomed the chance to find out more about such a lively period of history. (He supposed he had been through adventures just as exciting by now, he mused, and he didn't know if he would be able to ever boast about them to his old man or argue about whose adventure was coolest). It was just embarrassing when he was regaled them by a loud drunk who interspersed them with details of Claude's own early childhood.

"Hmph, well, I told myself I wasn't going to get sidetracked, and I won't!" the Admiral declared. Claude had actually sworn his dad had already completely forgotten what he was doing, especially at the rate he was drinking even as he lectured his son on not overdoing it. Knowing Ronixis F. Kenny, he'd probably randomly remember something urgent he had to do back at base and then wander off. Either that, or spot a woman.

"So, next lesson is what to do if you spot a girl you like the look of," said the Admiral, at a volume that made Claude wince as several of said female sentients turned their heads in their direction, for some reason glaring more at Claude than at his father, "Of course, it depends on the species, every planet has it owns customs, and even if they're on base and under Federation law, or somewhere that's a real melting pot like Earth capital, they're still gonna want to observe their own world's customs. Which reminds me, one of the things I need to explain to you... drinking isn't the same on every planet either, not by a long shot. On Tetragene you're still not legal drinking age for another ten years - they have longer lifespans than us but their laws sure as hell don't take this into account. On somewhere like Klaus they'll serve literally anyone anything, but that's a problem in itself. There's still very little in the way of law you're not expected to enforce yourself, so it's easy to get scammed or start a fight. Then there are things that a human really shouldn't try and drink that might look perfectly safe for your Lesser Fellpool drinking buddy but there's a limit to how much catnip a human's system can process without losing it all, and it won't do a damn thing for your mood if your genes aren't feline enough... hoi there, another bottle for the table!"

By this time, Claude's head was spinning with the effort of absorbing that much haphazardly imparted wisdom, the topic veering wildly from safe drinks to interesting extraterrestrial drinking customs to the virtues of mature Tetragene women (didn't he have a loyal human wife?). Claude knew why his father rambled on so much sometimes and it was nothing to do with inebriation. Well, it was mostly not to do with how many bottles they had somehow gotten through together with himself not being permitted more than three glasses. The Admiral must have gotten an urgent call to go and do something important and official - he had started answering his communicator with increasing frequency despite promising to set it to 'Do Not Disturb' - so he was clearly trying to get everything important out of the way in case he suddenly failed to delegate the responsibility and had to rush off. Unfortunately, this particular kind of delicate situation - spending time with his own son - was the one scenario that he was lousy at dealing with and that also panicked him the most - and also incidentally was not covered in his training.

"Except with Jie Revorse overthrown it might be different now, so..." he grabbed his buzzing communicator and held it up to his ear, "Look, I told you not to disturb me for any... what? What, the entire planet, right now? I... I guess I'd better..."

"Look, I'll get the bill..." Claude sighed.

"What was that about you covering the bill? That's sweet of you," chirped up the voice of a certain Tetrageniot woman of exactly the type that Ronixis had been describing, now smiling down at him, batting all three long, expertly made up eyelashes and letting wavy straw blonde hair flow down her lithe shoulders. He tried not to flinch or blush.

"You look a little spaced out there. You sure you're okay with a second glass? That stuff hits humans hard."

"S... so you've seen it before?"

“This planet’s fauna isn’t that weird, you know, there’s only so many ways plants can evolve and still recognisably be plants. I dunno what you get taught in the Federation military but it doesn’t sound like you get to go off the beaten path as much as a real explorer,” she smiled, then reached into one of the many pouches on the thick khaki belt that looped around the middle of the long black ballgown she wore everywhere. She wore a more sensible explorer’s jacket over the top of the dress but Claude still didn’t understand why a long, slinky dress and high heels were considered a good choice of all terrain interplanetary exploration gear. Maybe she had lost the rest of her outfit in the crash, he mused, or it was a Tetrageniot thing that his father hadn’t gotten around to explaining. He was interrupted from his musing when he saw that she had pulled a small metal cigar-shaped handheld device out of her belt pouch and was waving it at the drink, causing the device to beep rapidly.

“See? Safe. You should always carry one of these around with you,” she smiled at his shocked face, “Don’t you dare lecture me about the UP3. Survival’s more important in crisis situations like this, everyone knows that. Besides, they know we’re from another world. They’ve got mystic prophecies about us being their saviours and so on. Might as well act the part and keep the faith alive.”

"Opera, this isn't just a minor violation of the UP3, do you know how illegal it is to interfere with the local religion?" he whispered with a pointed edge to his tone.

"Hey, we're not setting ourselves up as Gods or anything," she replied, not impressed by the bluster of a Terran human (he remembered now how arrogant Tetrageniots could be around other species sometimes), significantly shorter and younger than her at that,"They're the ones who called us their saviors, so if anything, we'd be disrupting things by not going along with their beliefs. What if they've based their entire society around us? I mean, they clearly already knew we were here," she reasoned. Then she grinned mischievously, "Besides, isn't that what you do best in the Federation - barge into someone else's planet and play the hero?"

"You know, Tetragenesis is technically Federation..."

"Our Government is, yeah, but I'm nothing to do with the Government. Earnest and I have always been independent explorers and traders," she explained, "Tetragenesis isn't like Earth. We've been pretty widespread for a long time. If someone isn't directly involved with the Central Government, we don't really play a big part in each others' lives. Especially when I'm registered as someone whose job takes them outside Tetragene space all the time."

"Don't they worry about what you're up to out here?" he asked, continuing to lower his voice and wishing she would make at least some effort to be discreet. Fortunately it was a pretty loud bar, with everyone else getting on with their own business, closing sales deals or partying or boasting about their success in the Lacour Arena. If anything, Claude was a little worried he would have to deal with a bar brawl unless the two rival mercenaries piped down.

"I don't think they actually know where I am," she admitted, "My ship picks up tracking devices sometimes but I take them off. I can't be sure they're from the Government. They could be from a rival house, from another trading company not even allied with the nobility... besides, the last time I looked at my ship, the thing had been burned off in the atmosphere," she frowned, "As were a lot of things that weren't knocked off by the impact. I don't know how I'm ever gonna get that thing to fly!"

"I feel you," he sighed.

She looked at him and frowned, "I guess I should be lucky I even have a wrecked ship to complain about. That's a problem you can see and fix. Did you say you just ended up here when you touched a high energy artifact? It wasn't even an ordinary teleport redirection?"

He nodded, "I don't know if that's better or worse. I've heard some nasty stories about teleport accidents, but at least I have a vague idea what to expect. My dad's encountered those before, he'd be able to get me some help. But this..."

"Why'd you just go up and touch a mysterious artifact with your bare hands, then?" she asked, "I thought I was the reckless thrill-seeking explorer here."

"I kind of felt I had to," he shrugged, "It was next to this door we couldn't unlock. I assumed it was meant to be the key. It was the only thing we hadn't tried yet and my dad was being so stubborn, refusing to go anywhere near it..."

"Because it's the absolute dumbest idea anyone's ever had, maybe?" 

"Action's always better than inaction! There was a distress signal, and my dad was just sitting there twiddling his thumbs!"

"Ah, I forgot, you're a Kenny," she sighed, "I'm surprised you haven't tried to pick me up yet."

His face went bright red and he spluttered, "You... you've already got a boyfriend!"

"That I have," she let out a long-suffering sigh, then drained her drink and waved over the waiting staff to order another. She was packing away a fair few of the drinks that Claude was sure she said were strong for a Tetrageniot. After a few seconds of staring with far away eyes into her empty glass, she burst out laughing, "I wasn't being serious, for Tria's sake! I don't even like the whole two eyes thing! And I think you've got at least one girl already with her eye on you."

"Who?" Demanded Claude, rather sharper in tone than intended. Opera laughed.

"Oh, I don't think I was given permission to tell."

Questions and imagined scenarios buzzed in his mind. I mean, it could only realistically be Rena or Celine... right? And Celine seemed more interested in constantly taunting Leon, so that leaves only… Claude shook his head. This is all just wishful thinking. She won’t even bloody stop talking about Dias!

"Okay, so, back to my family's reputation... are we really that bad that we're notorious in Tetragene space?"

"I never said I thought it was bad, how you Kennys carry on," she laughed, "And I just said I'm never in Tetragene space any more, didn't I?"

"How many of these particular rumours are specifically to do with something my father did?"

"Again, maybe he wants secrets from you," she smiled, "But on the other hand, if he was serious about keeping his secret, he wouldn't have let rumours about them spread all the way to Tetragenesis. Maybe I can be persuaded to let something slip. I'm thirsty and running low on Fol."

"Hey, you know I don't have any cash left either!" he yelled.

"Oh, well, you'll have to help me with my own problems first, then."

Claude sighed. He had no idea how long this ‘problem’ of hers, the reason she had joined them in their journey, might take them to resolve. He had seen her errant boyfriend here and there but never for very long at one time. By the time he was able to process having seen him, never mind alert Opera to his presence, Earnest Raviede was gone again, like the breeze. It was less that he was actively avoiding her and more that probability itself seemed to be causing them to go in opposite directions each time. With her having to check every ancient ruin they came across in case Earnest was there and Celine just naturally gravitating towards them out of curiosity, they never seemed to get anywhere. Not that Claude was really sure where they were going or what they were doing yet, whether any of it would really help him get home or Celine find out about her family. The answer probably would turn out to be in an ancient ruin, mind you – there had to be such an unusual proliferation of them on just this one continent for a reason. It wasn’t as if they had any better plan than just follow the pattern of what was going awry with the world and how it was usually fixed, hope that the out of place factors were something to do with his accidental arrival here. He doubted it was a coincidence that this seemed to suddenly be the solution to the personal problems of everyone else he crossed paths with, except the ones who randomly happened to have business with Rena in some way, but again, he couldn’t actually find an exploitable pattern.

“I heard there’s some genius engineer in Linga,” he said, “Maybe he’ll be able to fix your ship if we go and get an audience with him while Rena sorts out business with Krasner? And then you could use your sensors to find him. You do have a way to locate other crew members on your ship, right?”

“Well, it’s not normal procedure, but I may have put a tracking device or two on him.”

"Worthless," Opera informed him, casually chewing the broadest parts of the leaves from the stems, then throwing the rest on the earthen floor and crushing them under her high heels, "I can tell you that without looking. Tasty, I guess, and you can brew a basic medicinal potion from it, but it's been present on ninety per cent of worlds I've been to so far, mostly growing like weeds. The old man's not gonna be curing any major diseases with that."

Claude sighed, "I guess we'd better go even further in."

"That's always the way of these adventures," she said, "If you want to net the really big prizes, gotta go further in than anyone else, where the greatest dangers are. That's probably the whole point of this exercise - to test how far we're willing to go before he'll trust us with some big expedition he's planning once he gets hold of that tablet."

"I hate tests like this," admitted Claude, "They're never fair, not really. They always find a reason to push you harder then they're supposed to or say your results don't count. At least they do when they have it in for you."

"Well, there's always the possibility he's just too lazy or cowardly to go and get his own damn herbs."

"I can't stand being treated like an underling because of who I am either."

She laughed, "I don't think anyone's heard of the Kenny family down here. They probably just generically don't trust outsiders, knowing these underdeveloped planets."

So you do actually realise this is an underdeveloped planet, he thought, frowning as she once again pulled out her scanner and poked another herb, a single large, wispy, bright purple frond that swayed in the cavern's light breeze. Part of the reason Claude had suggested they split into two teams, despite Celine's complaints that splitting the party was the absolute surest way to get them killed on an adventure, was his wish for her to at least stand on the other side of the cavern to the two natives they regularly hung around with when she was going to turn on all her survey equipment. Celine was fascinated with anything technological since Leon showed her what his worryingly advanced magitechnological weapons could do but Claude wasn't sure he actually wanted to encourage this and besides, Rena had no clue what was going on around technology most of the time and tended to default to claiming it to be proof of his semidivinity and her own divine right to follow him as a disciple, another habit he wished he could break. Rena's medical knowledge and Celine's frequent past encounters with the flora and fauna living in such local caves would be enough for them to survive, while there was also one more combat experienced person capable of protecting the frailer specialist in each group. They would be able to cover more ground in a shorter time, make less noise and attract less trouble if they split up and covered separate ends of the cave.

"Really, though," Celine repeated as the two groups parted, "These caverns are no joke, even compared to what we've already faced. I've lost count of how many times I've had to grab something out of here and just run for my life. If you have to retreat, do so."

He reassured her once again, going over the plan for where to meet up and regroup after what time, what they should do if any of them didn't come out when they were supposed to. Techniques that worked for normal expedition parties like this, where people didn't just disappear and end up on the other side of the galaxy...

“You’re brooding again,” she told him, “You agreed with Rena that she wouldn’t constantly worry about Dias if you didn’t spend every five seconds trying to go home and leave her behind without warning. Remember? That holds true when you’re apart from each other, too. Think of this as a chance to prove what you were saying to me while you were drunk. In case you can’t remember, I believe it was ‘I can get somewhere on my own merit, without my dad’s help.’ That means having a part of your life that’s nothing to do with being a Kenny or an Admiral’s son for once. This is a perfect opportunity. Literally nobody knows or cares who you are down here, as I said.”

“Except everyone thinks I’m some sort of holy saviour,” he sighed.

“Is that what’s been bothering you so much about this ‘Warrior of Light’ thing? You’re worried people will pressure you into the same way that they do in the academy?”

“Or worse. At least everyone only worships my dad,” he sighed, “Of course, for some reason that still means I have to pull miracles out of my… pocket, and nothing I do is ever really good enough, and I’m expected to ask for no reward...”

“Trust me, heroism isn’t in the bloodline. There’ve been some very odd individuals in the Vectra family tree.”

“Oh, yes, you’re a noble, aren’t you?”

“Technically.”

“Only technically? But isn’t it a big thing back on Tetragenesis?”

“I told you, I’m never...”

“Back on Tetragenesis. I remember. Is that why, then?”

“What, am I just as guilty of running away from my problems and just a big old hypocrite? Quite possibly,” she laughed, “But it’s not a lie that I’m going to track down that man if it’s the last thing I do. And never let him escape again.”

“So you’re going to get married? Would you have to go back home to do that?”

“Curious about me all of a sudden, aren’t you? Is this your way of getting the information you want about your family and the rumours? I told you, I’m going to give away everything once my own mission is over. You’ll have to be patient and finish the job. The Vectras sure as hell don’t go back on their word!”

“I was just curious,” he frowned, “You never tell me anything about yourself. Not real stuff. I don’t even know anything about Earnest, even though you’re obviously thinking about nothing else.”

“Obvious, is it? Okay, I’ll tell you… we’re not going back. There are plenty of places to get married and neither of us want something grand and official.”

“But don’t nobles have rules apart that sort of thing?”

“Yes, and none of them allow me to just rush off and marry whoever I want to. Especially...”

“Is there a circumstance around Earnest, then?” asked Claude, “Sorry if I’m being too nosy. Feel free to tell me to mind my own business.”

“That I will, if I feel like it. The scandal probably isn’t as saucy as you’re thinking, but there have been… problems. Problems that mean they probably talk about the prodigal Vectra heir in the courts almost as much as they do about Ronixis F. Kenny. And they’re welcome to, as long as I don’t have to be involved in something that boring.”

“Oh, so you DO know what they’re saying about my father?”

“You thought I was lying? Honestly, who do you take me for? Okay, so my information from more reliable sources might be rather out of date. Lately I’ve been way out of contact with my intelligence network, I’ve only had the official news channels, that’s when I’m even in range to connect to those, and we have a strong communications infrastructure compared to Earth…”

“But you know something I don’t. On account of, Tetragenesis never lets the rest of the Federation know what’s really going on with their core worlds.”

“Oh, they do, they just don’t tell your father in particular,” she smiled, “Okay, I’ll let you in on something. Not about your father. About Earnest. Before he disappeared off the radar, just up and left the sector altogether after taking care to cloak himself from all sensors… or so it seemed… it was like he wasn’t even there. He didn’t register as a life form. I know that ship doesn’t have cloaking sophisticated enough to do that – it was MY best ship he stole! - but I do know what else can cause that phenomenon. I’ve seen it before. You do, when you go into enough ruins. It’s a common security feature on them."

"I've heard stories but I can't say I've ever encountered such a thing myself," he admitted, "Are you saying that there really such a thng as demonic possession? That demons exist, like the one my dad swore he met called 'Asmodeus'? I had always thought it was just some genetic engineering gone wrong. Tria knows there was enough of it going around at the time... say, when you said he was acting 'possessed'? Do you mean 'a bit out of character' possessed or 'actively trying to murder everyone in sight while frothing at the mouth and making his head go round in circles' possessed? Because I've heard stories about both happening..."

"Oh no, nothing that unstylish! This is Earnest we're talking about, he's still the man I vowed to marry! Although, he hasn't had me around to correct his errant behaviour for a while..." she frowned, "No, the last time I saw him, he was just heading really fast on a stolen ship in a direction he had shown no interest in going, not talking to anyone, not even seeming to recognise anyone, his eyes really blank... he didn't even get any credits of his account on the way out, so I don't know he expects to refuel for the return trip... my prettiest jewel isn't some industrial hauler full of facilities for reprocessing anything it meets into fuel, you know..."

"Well, if he's really headed here, I've not spotted anything I would possibly define as being usable as fuel, or any facilities for getting the fuel in the ship. You'd really have to be able to go back to square one to work on anything on this planet. Apart from, you know, it being a protected planet and just randomly mining it would incredibly illegal," he added, "And I'm not even sure what a lot of the more psychically reactive stuff is on this planet, especially this 'sorcery globe', so that makes it even more dangerous to just fuel your ship with and see what happens."

"I'm not sure that matters when you're possessed," she pointed out.

"I'm not sure refuelling matters when you're possessed. I'm surprised he even knows how to fly a ship if he can't even tell his friends apart," said Claude.

"Oh dear, do you think he's putting himself in danger?"

"I have literally no idea. I already told you I wasn't even aware people really got possessed. You're sure someone hasn't used some mind affecting psychic abilities on him? Spiked his food with anything? "

"I wouldn't let my Earnest be taken out by a cheap trick like that," she promised him, "We should probably be even quicker in finding him, though, if he's acting that recklessly."

"I'm more worried he'll be danger to one of us," admitted Claude, "And about whatever it is that's possessing him, if there really is a demon or ghost or something."

"To answer your question... it's turned out to a lot of things before now, something slightly different in each case, for the most part. A lost technology using holograms or electromagnetic pulses, heraldic runes with some sort of illusion or mind affecting symbology in them, sometimes even native species with psychic powers we don't know about yet. It varies whether they're hostile, have enough intelligence to be negotiated with... sometimes we don't really get an explanation, or the signs all point to it really being a ghost or demon... I'm sorry if this isn't much help to you but it's a vast galaxy, I've seen a lot of weird and wonderful parts of it, I happen to not know anything about this region other than there's a very large energy pulse on another continent and its starting to worry me."

"Me too," admitted Claude, "We can't get the King's permission to travel over at the moment, though. I don't blame them for being suspicious. They're at war, with what they perceive as demons."

"And what, to be fair, do kinda sound like demons," said Opera, yawning and stretching, "I hope we don't get pulled into a war. Soldiers are so hard to deal with. And if that idiot's gotten himself embroiled in something that dangerous..."

"Look, I can't say I'm not worried about this or that I didn't rather you told me everything from the beginning but I swear I'll help you find him!"

"On your honour as a Kenny, by any chance?" she laughed.

"Is that look you're giving me supposed to imply something about my father's honour?"

"Hm, you haven't actually done the job yet, and you haven't helped me look for these herbs, I rather think you've become distracted."

"The options are that patch over there that looks like the plants that stung me last time, or that patch further on, behind the worryingly large shadows. Forgive me if I'm not wildly enthusiastic."

She squinted, licked her lips and braced her laser cannon in both arms and against her hips, "I bet you five hundred Fol I can hit one from here."

"Opera, you haven't even scanned that one yet, you have no idea how powerful it is or if you could drop it or if it can see you or..."

A high-pitched whine of concentrated laser heat drowned out his panicked potests as a pillar of red light punched through the air scant inches from him, singing his hair a little. He threw himself to the ground, behind a rocky outcrop, hoping that the huge beast who had let out a garbled screech as it was hit, followed by an earth-shaking bellow of fury, hadn't seen him yet. Opera let out victory cry and fired again, a whole volley again, discharging her power cell into the thing that charged towards her. He sighed and drew his sword, preparing to spring out and intercept its charge like a true gentleman would. 

Assuming Kennys were gentlemen. Assuming anything he had heard one way or the other was true. He had found out one interesting fact about his father's real past from the conversation: demons might be real, so Ronixis F. Kenny might not be too big a liar. 

If he could survive all this, if he could even get out of this cave alive, he could one day go back and question him, possibly with a female extraterrestrial entourage of his own to explain, not to mention a million and one charges of serious UP3 violations.

Well, that was one aspect of the family reputation he could live up to, at least.


End file.
